Now that Pistol is fast approaching its release date on FX and Hulu, we can finally start looking forward to trailers and clips from the upcoming series that brings Academy Award winning director Danny Boyle back to his Trainspotting roots. The six-episode series will chronicle the story of legendary punk-rock band the Sex Pistols, one of the culture-changing groups that revolutionized music in London – and then the rest of the world.
The first teaser trailer for Pistol is thin on footage, running just a little under a minute long, but it already lets us get a sense of what the series will be like – and if you thought "youth in revolt, daring hairstyles, and guitars being smashed", that’s exactly what you’ll find. Should Boyle be able to reproduce what he did in one his most famous films, Pistol will simultaneously teach us about British culture during the late 70s and make us feel like we are living it.
In order to help bring the 70s British atmosphere back to life, the trailer for Pistol suggests that the series will go with an “aged” and slightly amateurish-looking cinematography, which represents the raw feel of the birth of punk-rock. The Sex Pistols are considered one of the most influential bands of the century, even though their career spanned only a couple of years. They pushed the boundaries when it came to the punk rock movement and inspired a legion of fans to question authority and the status quo.
Pistol is adapted from the Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones' memoir, titled Lonely Boy: Tales From a Sex Pistol, and it brings to life the rage-filled world that fans have come to associate with the band. Toby Wallace plays Jones, and the rest of the cast features Anson Boon as John Lydon, Christian Lees as Glen Matlock, Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, and Jacob Slater as Paul Cook, as well as Maisie Williams as punk icon Jordan, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as the Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren, and Talulah Riley as McLaren's partner and world-famous fashion designer, Vivienne Westwood.
The series is created and written by BAFTA winner Craig Pearce, who’s having quite a run with rock stars: he also co-wrote the screenplay from the upcoming Elvis Presley biopic. On top of that, Pearce also created and wrote Will, the TNT series that chronicled the life and literary-defining works of William Shakespeare.
FX and Hulu premiere Pistol on May 31. You can watch the teaser trailer below: